


Because I Need You

by twofacedjanus



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Major Character Injury, Pre-Slash, Set in Season 3, Though if you know me at all you totally know how it ends, ambiguous ending, i guess, probably
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-09
Updated: 2012-12-09
Packaged: 2017-11-20 17:31:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,098
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/587937
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/twofacedjanus/pseuds/twofacedjanus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After an Alpha attack, Stiles is injured and Derek's the only one he has.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Because I Need You

**Author's Note:**

> I went off on tumblr about how I hope sterek would become canon. This is a drabble I wrote on impulse about how I would hope to possibly see it happen some day.

The smell of blood was overwhelming, even as Derek tried to suppress the bleeding with his clean sleeve. Hobbling along at a broken pace, Derek did all he could to ignore the pain in his right leg, the slashes in his calf bleeding profusely and soaking his tattered pant leg. He cradled Stiles as best he could, Derek's slashed left arm under Stiles' knees and his other arm wrapped around his shoulders. Stiles' head lolled off to the side, bobbing back up with every staggered step.

"You're an idiot," Derek grunted. He winced as he tripped on a tree branch he had failed to notice in the darkness, nearly dropping Stiles.

Stiles hadn't said anything in a good ten minutes, despite any of Derek's insults. He heard his heart beat slowing and silently hoped Stiles wasn't passing out. Derek had tried his best to make a splint out of broken branches for Stiles' broken limbs, but his leg splints were snapping off from the steady knocking against Derek's hips, and the blood leaking from the cuts on his stomach was slowly soaking Derek's shirt.

"Stiles, come on," Derek gently and awkwardly slapped him with his bloodied right hand, it being his only free appendage. "Don't give out on me, okay?" Stiles groaned quietly. Derek glanced at his forehead, noticing the sickly bruise forming on his temple. "You're such an idiot... why didn't you run away?! He was an alpha!"

The silence beyond Stiles' accelerating heartbeat (a short-lived blessing, in Derek's book) was not a pleasant one.

"You had every chance to run. HE WAS AN ALPHA! Instead, you turned around and decided that-" he groaned, "throwing rocks at him was a good idea."

Derek worried slightly at Stiles' silence.

"Got your stomach slashed open... your leg and arm broken... you're lucky your skull didn't cave in... lost your phone." Derek glared at Stiles, hoping the anger alone would rouse him. "You know if mine hadn't been dead... we could have called help, but no."

Stiles eventually broke it with a quiet question. "Why do you think?" His voice sounded broken; empty. It sent a shiver up Derek's spine. He stole a glance at Stiles and saw his half-lidded eyes staring at him as he let his head hang from Derek's arm.

"Why do I think what?"

"Why I didn't run."

"Haven't I said that enough?" He grimaced as he hopped down a small hill and caused Stiles to yelp from his broken leg flailing around violently.

"You know why I... I didn't leave you in the pool?" 

"Because you're an-!" Derek heard more than smelled Stiles' anxiety, but it was still virtually palpable. He sighed, "Because you needed me."

Derek could see lights from town; they were nearing the border of the reserve.

"We're almost there... stay with me."

"I do need you, Derek," Stiles admitted in a pained groan.

"Why the hell do you sound like-" Derek groaned from a shot of pain up his leg, "like your heart's gonna burst from your chest, then? You're lying."

"Because I..." A few moments pass in silence, other than Stiles' racing pulse. "Because I don't want you to die."

"Because you needed-," Derek responded coldly.

"Because I love you," Stiles whispered.

Derek stopped dead in his tracks, leaning most of his weight on his good leg. "What?" he quietly intoned, his frustration melting away near instantly.

"I love you, Derek," Stiles' voice sounded more pained than before. "I love you. Why do you think I didn't run away?" A few moments in piercing silence passed. Derek locked eyes with Stiles, who had lifted his head from Derek's now blood-soaked arm. Derek's expression softened as Stiles gave him a heartbroken stare. A few tears streamed down Stiles' cheeks. Derek thought about how Stiles had missed his chance at first line to help him, how he had stayed with him keeping him from drowning for hours. How he had drove him around for hours to keep him safe when he was poisoned by hunters, why he never turned him over to the sheriff. Finally, after so many months, in this new light Stiles' actions made sense.

After a few more moments of quiet, Derek broke his gaze and silently began marching towards the hospital.

\--

The rest of the trip passed without words exchanged, an occasional grunt or whine of pain filling the air. The sliding doors of the hospital's emergency room entrance noisily slid open as Derek stumbled in and implored the employees. "Someone! Someone help us!" Melissa McCall happened to be on staff at the admittance desk and paled when she saw who Derek was carrying.

"Oh my God, what happened? Wait- nevermind, I don't want to know. Just... hold on." Melissa ran off to get a stretcher and some attendants, leaving the two alone. 

Derek sat down on a couch, gingerly positioning Stiles' legs as comfortably as possible, letting him gently cradle Stiles' head in his now free hand. He felt an ache growing in his chest, and he wondered if this would be the last time he'd see Stiles alive. Derek placed a gentle kiss on his forehead, and whispered to him, "I love you too." He heard Stiles' heartbeat speed up and more tears streamed down his face. Derek laced his fingers with Stiles' good hand and pressed another kiss, this time on the bruise on his head. "Shhh. It's okay. I'll be waiting for you." He gently ran his free hand through Stiles' short hair. "Don't give out on me, okay?" He glanced up to see a few staff doing some last minute preparations on the stretcher, and Melissa staring right at him, having witnessed their intimate moment. She smiled coyly, and wheeled the stretcher over. Derek hesitated, not wanting to lose what he'd found, even for a moment. He looked down at Stiles, who locked eyes with him and gave him a happy smile, even as he was biting back tears from the pain. He finally handed Stiles off to the staff, who after a few adjustments to his positioning, left with him.

"What about you?" Melissa inquired. Derek shook his head, and she noticed a bite mark on Derek's neck and the alpha's claw marks on his face slowly receding. She gasped quietly, and Derek shushed her.

"Don't tell anyone," he implored. "Just... get him back to me safely... please?"

Melissa gulped, but eventually nodded, and left Derek alone in the waiting room. He closed his eyes and clasped his hands to silently pray for Stiles' safe recovery to whatever God might be listening.


End file.
